Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1887-10-21
FARM AND GARDEN.
RIPE EARLY POTATOES.

u apt to now. they will begin to grow.
and soon become worthless for cooking
or other uses.
KEEPING GOOD STOCK.
More farmers fail from attempting
too much in stock without sufficient
experience than from any other one
cause. They maintain altogether too
many animals OF poor TO medium quail
ity. Ii is better TO have only one good
COW than TO have two or three medium
ones The one animal will leave the
farmer chance TO devote his time and
lard TO some more profitable purpose.
while the man overstocked with poor
animals finds that they absorb and eat
everything he grows.
WEED SEEDS IN SCREENINGS.
In cleaning up grain for market, if
the work is done properly there will
be nothing left in the screenings but
.he seeds of weeds These should be
burned Even if there are few I'M
perfect grains among the screenings.
farmers cannot afford to feed the whole
To stock, aud thus get weed seeds into
their manure heaps. Screenings are
mostly given 10 poultry. This is an
other cause Of loss. for they will eat
many weed seeds which are injurious,
and often stop them from laying at
this season.
sUNFLoWER SEED FOR CHICKEN FEED.
In the Fall, when sunlowers ripen
their seed, it requires some practice
and perhaps some starvation to make
fowls eat it, But after becoming used
to this new diet, AMI especially in cold
weather fowls are very fond of it. The
seed Of sunilowers has much oil in it.
which makes it better feed for cold
weather. BY this time too the acrid
juices of the green stalk have evaporat-
ed. 1t is better therefore TO put the
sunfower heads away for winter use,
nothing doubling that they will be
wanted.
SENSE OF SMELL ~ INSECTS
1t is an undoubted fact that most
noxious insects are guided 10y their
sense Of smell to tho places proper for
them to feed or depos t their eggs. 1t
is to this popularity that many
odoriferous substances owe their
supposed repelIant powers. The insect
is not, strictly speaking, repealed. but
the stronger foreign odor disgu SEES
that Of its proper food and therefore it
cannot find it. Thus any cheap but
slrong-smeliing substance may check
insects rayages just as elicaciously
as something much more expensive.
SHELTER FOR cows FROM COLD.
1t may seem TO some strange TO
advise giving some shelter to COWS at
night thus early in the season. In clear
weather even in July and August COWS
in fields viii Get under trees to lie down.
so that there may be less radiation of
their own warmth into space. II any
one tries sleeping out of doors in
summer. as campers sometimes do, he
will be apt to feel a chilly sensation
towards morning. OF course when
cold storms prevail, as they are liable
to from now onward, the necessity for
shelter is greatly increased.
SWEET AND SOUR CREAM.
Uniformity in cream is one secret of
getting large amount of butter from
it. This is one of the great advantages
of the creamery system which, in
changeable weather, it is difficult to get
without it. If sweet and sour cream
are mixed together nearly all the sweet
cream goes into the buttermlk In
some cases where the amount of butter
was not nearly what it ought to be-
farmers wives have churned the butter
milk and got enough more butter to pay
for the extra labor. But a creamery
would cost Little. and in many places
pay itself in one season by the increased
butter product
TIME TO CUT CORN.
Owing to the great amount OF heat
the past Summer much corn will be
ready to cut early. Some farmers have
a habit of leaving corn just as long as
they safely can. and as everybody is
liable TO make a wrong guess, they
generally have more or less corn cut
by frost. This is a serious misfortune
not alone for the fodder, which is badly
injured, but for the damage to the i'm
mature grain. 1t is safer to err in cut
ting too early than in delaying until
after frost. When well glazed the corn
may be cut and If well put up will
ripen enough to grow. yet the grains
will be diminished in size. making the
rows wide apart on the cob.
IS BUTTER DIGEsTIBLRP
Some agricultural papers are discuss
ing the comparative digestibility of
butter. The old-fashioned idea taught
in the books many years ago was that
pure butter was wholly indigestible.
that in large masses it was melted by
the warmth of tho stomach an operated
A. so much oil until 10 passes off with